This invention relates to a buoyancy compensator jacket for diver.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1993-112291A describes a buoyancy compensator jacket, which is provided on its back with holder means serving to fix an air tank thereto. This holder means comprise a frame member equivalent to a backplate and a sheet member made of woven fabric adapted to be would around the air tank and to fix this to the frame member. The frame member is covered with a cushion pad from the inner side of a bladder jacket in order to protect the wearer""s back from uncomfortable irritation exerted by the frame member fixing the air tank to the jacket""s back.
The cushion pad used in the known buoyancy compensator jacket is usually made of foamed material such as foamed urethane, particularly open cell material. The cushion pad is preferable so far as its elasticity is concerned. However, a considerable amount of water permeates the cells and, after diving, a weight of the bladder jacket correspondingly increases, making it difficult to walk.
It is an object of this invention to provide a buoyancy compensator jacket that is designed so that an initial weight of the cushion pad may be maintained even after diving.
According to this invention, there is provided a buoyancy compensator jacket for diving comprising a bladder jacket into which the air for buoyancy compensation can be introduced, a backplate mounted on a rear side of the bladder jacket provided with means for securing an air tank thereto, a cushion pad mounted on any one of the bladder jacket and the backplate so as to lie between the back of a wearer and the backplate.
The cushion pad is made of flexible elastic material which is water-impervious on a surface thereof and formed on a plurality of regions thereof with dome-shaped swellings which are convex toward the back of the wearer.
In the buoyancy compensator jacket according to this invention, the cushion pad lying inside the backplate and destined to be pressed against the diver""s back is made of the elastic member of closed cell foam type or substantially non-cellular type which is water-impervious at least on its external surface. Accordingly, there is no anxiety that water permeation into the cushion pad might occur as the wearer dives and a weight of the cushion pad might increase after diving as the conventional cushion pad has often experienced.
The unique arrangement according to this invention such that bosses formed, for example, on the cushion pad are engaged with respective through-holes formed in the backplate as the bosses are elastically deformed advantageously facilitates the cushion pad and the backplate to be assembled together.